1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric junction box and more particularly to an electric junction box including a heat sink including one of convex and concave shapes on the surface thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
The prior art, such as Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2003-164039, discloses an electric junction box that distributes power from a common vehicle power source to electronic units. In the electric junction box of the prior art, a bus bar board that constitutes a power circuit is adhered to a lower surface of a control circuit board. The bus bar board is provided with a heat sink material on a lower surface (a surface opposite to the surface adhered to the control circuit board). The heat sink, entirely formed of heat sink material that conducts heat well, such as aluminum, has a planar shape. A plurality of fins, aligned on right and left, project downward from a lower surface of the heat sink.
The construction of the prior art described above, however, has the drawback that space for the fins needs to be reserved. The electric junction box is generally connected to a battery via a cable or a wire harness and stored in an engine compartment. Since the space within the engine compartment is limited, a compact electric junction box is desired.
To reduce the space that a heat sink occupies, one option may be to use a laminated heat sink alone having no fins for heat dissipation. Insufficient dissipation of the heat from the circuitry, however, may harm control circuit elements mounted on the control circuit board. Therefore, it is required to downsize an electric junction box while maintaining sufficient heat dissipation.